3 Huge Stocks to Trade (or Not) - views

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- Put down the 10-K filings and the stock screeners. It's time to take a break from the traditional methods of generating investment ideas. Instead, let the crowd do it for you.

From hedge funds to individual investors, scores of market participants are turning to social media to figure out which stocks are worth watching. It's a concept that's known as "crowdsourcing," and it uses the masses to identify emerging trends in the market.

Crowdsourcing has long been a popular tool for the advertising industry, but it also makes a lot of sense as an investment tool. After all, the market is completely driven by the supply and demand, so it can be valuable to see what names are trending among the crowd.

While some fund managers are already trying to leverage social media resources like Twitter to find algorithmic trading opportunities, for most investors, crowdsourcing works best as a starting point for investors who want a starting point in their analysis. Today, we'll leverage the power of the crowd to take a look at some of the most active stocks on the market today.

These "most active" names are the most heavily-traded names on the market -- and often, uber-active names have some sort of a technical or fundamental catalyst driving investors' attention on shares. That's especially true now that earnings season is officially underway. And when there's a big catalyst, there's often a trading opportunity.

Ever since Apple (AAPL) posted its earnings numbers on Monday night, shares have been subjected to post-earnings insanity. First, shares dropped around 8% on Tuesday, as the firm's record iPhone and iPad sales and record revenues fell short of Wall Street's "lofty" expectations. And ever since, AAPL has remained a big-volume name as buyers and sellers have battled it out at lower levels. I've got my own take on things.

Either way, the technicals are ruling things in AAPL right now. The break of trendline support on Tuesday was a big deal, and today's test of $500 support is equally crucial. This stock is still dirt cheap from a valuation standpoint, but if $500 gets taken out (materially, not by a few dollars), Apple could have a lot further to fall.

Qualcomm's (QCOM) first-quarter earnings may be the catalyst for today's high-volume 3% bounce in shares, but the story in this stock is purely technical right now. Qualcomm earned $1.26 per share last quarter, besting analysts' expectations by 8 cents. While Qualcomm hasn't been much of a notable mover in the last year, the price action right now looks a whole lot more auspicious:

That's because QCOM is bouncing off of trend line support in today's session, sticking within the textbook uptrending channel that's been forming in shares since the summer. A bounce off of support makes today the optimal time to be a buyer, but a stop underneath the channel gets you out when the technical story changes.

General Electric (GE) didn't announce its earnings this week -- those came a full nine sessions ago. But GE is seeing big trading volume thanks to a technical bounce off of support at $25.

For the last two weeks, GE has been selling off hard following earnings on Jan. 17, but shares finally caught a bid earlier this week. The bounce in GE makes it buyable right now for investors looking to get in at newfound low levels. Still, it makes sense to keep a tight stop under $25.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Jonas Elmerraji, CMT, is a senior market analyst at Agora Financial in Baltimore and a contributor to TheStreet. Before that, he managed a portfolio of stocks for an investment advisory returned 15% in 2008. He has been featured in Forbes , Investor's Business Daily, and on CNBC.com. Jonas holds a degree in financial economics from UMBC and the Chartered Market Technician designation.